Convoy (song)
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| “Convoy” | ||
|---|---|---|
| Single by C. W. McCall from the album Black Bear Road |
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| Released | November 1975 | |
| Format | 7" | |
| Recorded | 1975 | |
| Genre | Country, truck-driving country, pop | |
| Length | 3:49 | |
| Label | American Gramaphone | |
| Writer(s) | William D. Fries Jr. (lyrics) Louis F. Davis Jr. (music) |
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| Producer | Louis F. Davis Jr. Don Sears |
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"Convoy" is a 1975 novelty song performed by C.W. McCall (pseudonym of Bill Fries) that became a number-one hit in the USA (#2 UK) and helped start a worldwide craze for citizens band (CB) radio. The song was the inspiration for the 1978 Sam Peckinpah film Convoy.
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[edit] The song
The song consists of three different types of interspersed dialog: a simulated CB conversation interspersed with CB slang, the narration of the story and the chorus. It is the story about a fictitious minor trucker rebellion that drives from the west coast to the east coast of the United States without stopping. What they are protesting against (other than the then-prevalent 55 miles per hour speed limit) appears to be toll road payments, as evidenced by lines such as "We tore up all our swindle sheets and left 'em sittin' on scales" and, more overtly, "We just ain't gonna pay no toll").
The "conversation" is between three truckers, using their handles "Rubber Duck", "Pig Pen" and "Sod Buster", but we only hear Rubber Duck's side of the conversation.
Rubber Duck (driving a Kenworth with a load of logs) is at the "front door" (the leader) of three eighteen-wheelers (tractor and semi-trailer) when he realizes that they have a convoy. Following the Rubber Duck is an unnamed trucker in a "cab-over Pete with a reefer on" (a refrigerated trailer, hauled by a Peterbilt truck configured with the cab over the engine), while Pig Pen brings up the rear in a "Jimmy" (GMC truck) hauling hogs.
The convoy begins heading toward "Flagtown" (Flagstaff, Arizona) at night on June 6 on "I-one-oh" (I-10) just outside of "Shakytown" (Los Angeles, California, known by that name due to its frequent earth tremors). By the time they get to "Tulsatown" (Tulsa, Oklahoma), there are eighty-five trucks in the convoy and the "bears" (police) have set up a road block and have a "bear in the air" (police helicopter) monitoring the situation. By the time they get to "Chi-town" (Chicago, Illinois), the convoy has been joined by a "suicide jockey" (truck hauling explosives) and "eleven long-haired friends of Jesus in a chartreuse microbus", and the police have called out "reinforcements from the 'Illinoise' (Illinois) National Guard". The convoy crashes another road block when crossing a toll bridge into New Jersey, and by this time they have "a thousand screamin' trucks" in all.
Several times during the song, Rubber Duck would complain about the smell of the hogs that Pig Pen was hauling, and he kept asking Pig Pen to "back off" (fall further behind). By the end of the song, Pig Pen has fallen so far back that when Rubber Duck is in New Jersey, Pig Pen has only gotten as far as Omaha (a veiled reference to the headquarters of American Gramaphone, the label which released the song).
The song is also notable for sharing the same meter as the Robert W. Service poem "The Cremation of Sam McGee".[citation needed]
[edit] Sequel
McCall's "'Round the World with the Rubber Duck" is the sequel to "Convoy". In this continuation, the convoy leaves the United States and travels around the world, through England, France, West and East Germany, the USSR, Japan, and Australia.
[edit] Remakes
C.W. McCall recorded a new version of the song with different lyrics for the soundtrack of the 1978 film Convoy. C.W. McCall also made two additional re-recordings of the original song, one for his 1990 album The Real McCall: An American Storyteller, and the other for the 2003 Mannheim Steamroller album American Spirit.
In 1976, an English version, Convoy GB, featuring BBC Radio 1 DJs Dave Lee Travis and Paul Burnett as Laurie Lingo & The Dipsticks, made #4 on the UK singles chart. In this version, the two truckers are "Superscouse" and "Plastic Chicken".
The song made an appearance in The Simpsons, in the episode "Radio Bart". Another episode, "'Tis the Fifteenth Season", featured a Christmas themed version called "Christmas Convoy". The song was also sung by Earl, Joy and Randy in an episode of My Name is Earl, entitled "Made a Lady Think I Was God". The song was featured in the television series Futurama, in the episode "Parasites Lost". The current Fire in the Night show at the Pacific National Exhibition in Vancouver, BC is also based upon the most recent Paul Brandt version of the song.
[edit] Paul Brandt version
| “Convoy” | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Paul Brandt from the album This Time Around |
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| Released | 2004 | ||||
| Genre | Country music | ||||
| Length | 4:32 | ||||
| Label | Orange Record Label | ||||
| Producer | Paul Brandt Steve Rosen |
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| Paul Brandt singles chronology | |||||
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The song was covered in 2004 by Paul Brandt. The video features Brandt and fellow country singers Jason McCoy and Aaron Lines as well as Calgary Flames defensemen Mike Commodore and Rhett Warrener as truckers and George Canyon, of Nashville Star fame, as the highway patrol officer. The video can be seen on CMT in both Canada and the United States. Brandt's version of the song peaked at #9 on the Canadian Country Singles chart.
The song was re-written into a Christmas song by Paul Brandt on his A Gift album. This re-written version was called "Christmas Convoy" and it peaked at #36 on the Canadian country charts.
Paul Brandt was at the Dauphin Country Music Festival in Manitoba and saw a trucking company with his name on it. After some talking, the owner of the company agreed to let Paul Brandt use his trucks for the music video.
[edit] External links
| Preceded by "Love Put a Song in My Heart" by Johnny Rodriguez |
Billboard Hot Country Singles number-one single December 20, 1975- January 24, 1976 |
Succeeded by "This Time I Hurt Her More than She Loves Me" by Conway Twitty |
| Preceded by "Saturday Night" by Bay City Rollers |
Billboard Hot 100 number-one single January 10, 1976 |
Succeeded by "I Write the Songs" by Barry Manilow |
| Preceded by "Rhinestone Cowboy" by Glen Campbell |
Billboard Hot Country Singles number-one single of the year 1976 |
Succeeded by "Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)" by Waylon Jennings |
